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Here’s a photo of a peony from my garden. The reason that I’m posting it is because Mars moves into my fourth house tomorrow. The fourth house is related to […]

Bartzella Peony

Here’s a photo of a peony from my garden. The reason that I’m posting it is because Mars moves into my fourth house tomorrow. The fourth house is related to the home and domestic activities, including gardening. Normally, I’m eager to garden at this time of year. Because spring came about a month late in this part of the world, I’m more eager than ever to get outside and get my hands dirty.

A few posts back, I alluded to an idea I had for a new book. It concerns Mars and where we individually find “energy” in our charts. My natal Mars is in the fourth house. This gardening thing has been a labor of love for me as long as I remember. I put a lot of energy into growing things and making sure that my garden is the showiest garden in my neighborhood. While other gardeners may try to create a look that is serene and tasteful, I like to plant a garden that can be seen from outer space — Mars is a competitive planet, after all. I prize showy plants like the big, yellow peony in the photo. I’ve actually had people ring my doorbell to ask about that particular plant.

However, my natal Mars is also in Aquarius. Aquarius is the “social” sign. I’ve taken my gardening expertise and turned it into several projects, including a stint where I ran the city’s most prestigious gardening competition. Again, I put my energy toward something that not only had a fourth-house connection (gardening), but also an Aquarian association (volunteerism) and a Mars connection (an actual contest).

Currently, I’m exploring that natal Mars position and how it relates to the activities individuals choose to stay fit. I’ve been a fitness trainer since the eighties (even longer than I’ve been an astrologer), but I’ve never tried to connect the two disciplines because I’ve been disappointed by most of the fitness astrology that I’ve read in the past. A sun sign alone isn’t sufficient to build a fitness profile of an individual. Sure, I’ve written two books about sun signs and personal style, but the sun sign relates to self-expression. Fitness is going to have a more profound connection to Mars’ placement in the natal chart by both house position and sign. Now that online natal charts are available with the click of a button, the idea of writing a book about something more obscure than a sun sign doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. Everyone can learn their own Mars sign with relative ease in the age of the internet.

Anyway, I’m going to get down to work on this project very soon. The fourth house can also reveal where we might try to create a “cottage industry” of our own. With more than three decades of experience in both fitness and astrology, perhaps it’s time to see if I can turn my sidelines — the things that energize me — into something that can make me some money.